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Thursday, 4 May 2017

(The Edge) Stronger retail, office segments lift Sunway REIT NPI

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Real Estate Investment
Trust (Sunway REIT) reported a 4% rise in net property income (NPI) to RM100.18
million in its third quarter from RM96.69 million a year ago, which it
attributed to a resilient retail segment as its office segment improved.

The REIT declared 2.37 sen of distribution
per unit (DPU) for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 (3QFY17), comparable with
the same period a year ago, payable on June 6. Th is brings its DPU for the first
three quarters of FY17 (9MFY17) to 6.92 sen per unit, from 7.06 in 9MFY16.

Quarterly revenue rose 3.2% to RM134.57
million from RM130.35 million.

For 9MFY17, NPI grew 2.3% to RM290.3
million from RM283.68 million in 9MFY16, while revenue climbed 1.8% to RM390.33
million from RM383.43 million.

It said the retail segment’s NPI grew
8.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 9MFY17, mainly on normalised contribution from
Sunway Putra Mall, which had granted a 2.5-month rent-free period to tenants
during the initial opening of the mall last year. Sunway Pyramid Shopping mall
and Sunway Carnival Shopping mall’s performance also grew moderately during the
quarter.

The office segment, meanwhile, recorded
a 16.4% y-o-y growth in NPI due to higher occupancy rate at Sunway Putra Tower.

The two segments’ performance
mitigated a slowdown in the hotel segment, where NPI slid 21.9%, due to the
closure of Sunway Pyramid Hotel for refurbishment since April 2016.